The present invention relates to an apparatus for selecting and feeding web material which is particularly adapted for use in machines for packaging products into sheets of flexible material, obtained by transversal cutting of a continuous web unreeled from a supply bobbin.
More particularly, the invention relates to automatic machines for packaging, in stretch film, products arranged in trays, such as food products. These machines are capable of packaging products having different sizes, and for this purpose they require stretch film of different widths. Presently, for this purpose, it is known to arrange on the machine frame a plurality of supply bobbins of stretch film having different widths, and to select the film having the required width depending upon the size of the products being packaged. These operations are effected manually, with considerable loss of time, due also to the difficulties in the handling of the stretch film.
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for selecting and feeding web material, such as stretch film, from a plurality of supply bobbins of web material having different characteristics, to a web utilizing machine, such as a packaging machine, in which the web changeover operation, depending upon the size of the product being packaged, is fully automatic.